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notes in the Asian food
Monday, May 4 2020
I had another day that sent me scurrying up to the ladder to the solar deck and back multiple times in pursuit of elusive over-the-air television signals. This time I was trying a ponderous yagi from China. I say ponderous, since the middle of it is a large trapezoidal plastic shape, giving the whole thing the appearance of a large segmented invertebrate belonging to an incertæ sedis Ediacaran phylum. Though ugly and cheaply-made, it had some interesting features, including a built-in rotation motor and perhaps a signal amplifier. Since it only used a conventional two-conductor coax cable with F-connectors at either end, it must've been running direct current down on those same conductors right along with the many overlapping television signals. The rotation was to be achieved by pushing a single red button on the little box that introduced the DC into the coax cable. Its effect was to rotate the antenna slowly in some random direction. It would then reverse with the next push and rotate the other direction. There was even a remote provided so you could do this from the couch. Unfortunately, after installing it on a small staff on the railing of the laboratory deck, the damn thing produced no signal at all.
Next I took the risk of mounting the double-cloverleaf non-directional antenna to the very top of the thin conduit pole, an ungainly thing that I then somehow raised (in strong gusts of wind mind you) high enough to telescope down into the wider antenna mast. Even from such a commanding perch, it found no more stations than it had when fifteen feet lower. I was feeling like the antenna gods had cursed me. Later, though, I managed to get a set of stations using that cursed yagi from yesterday and a small signal amplier. But these were the same ones I'd been getting all along with the cloverleaf antenna.
The weather had started out nice, but quickly turned cloudy and progressively colder. There was a sudden appearance of the sun in the late afternoon, but then the clouds returned and by evening I was wondering if I should build a fire, though I never did.
In recent years, I've come to the realization that, though my palate is compatible with Gretchen's for most foods, I've decided that for some Asian dishes, she likes certain notes that I do not. I'm not a big fan of edamame and water chestnuts, but the issue there is mostly textural. Flavor-wise, I think the disagreement might be either sesame oil or plum vinegar, or perhaps a combination of the two. Whatever it is, it was present in large amounts in last night's dinner, which Gretchen bulked-up with more vegetables and served again tonight. Certain parts of it were delicious, but then I'd hit a pocket of that flavor, and I'd find myself choking it down. It didn't help that I'd taken a recreational 150 milligram dose of pseudoephedrine this morning, which acts as an appetite supressant.
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